


Colour and Light

by dusuessekartoffel



Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Trans Character, Druck Fandom Gift Exchange, M/M, it get's a tad gory in the middle but it's not that explicit, matteo and david basically talk and fall in love for 6k, matteo doesn't care about plot and neither do i
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:53:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21622522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dusuessekartoffel/pseuds/dusuessekartoffel
Summary: In a world where you see the world in black and white until you meet your soulmate, assigned to you by the government, Matteo and his friends are among the few who fight against the system. Matteo doesn’t mind, really. He doesn’t mind much, in general. Until he meets David, mysterious resistance fighter and the most interesting guy he’s ever met. And maybe, just maybe, Matteo wishes that soulmates were real and that David was his.Or; Davenzi soulmate AU turned slightly dark and dystopian but really it’s just lots of fluff.
Relationships: Matteo Florenzi/David (Druck)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 107





	Colour and Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [withtiredsoulss](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=withtiredsoulss).



> This is part of the Druck Fandom Gift Exchange and was written for @withtiredsoulss. 
> 
> The title of the fic is inspired by the song "Color and Light" from Sunday in the Park with George. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fanfic but it's a great song and I recommend listening to it.  
> You can also listen to my writing playlist [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6WMmqgmbuKV5hNqJAk6bFz?si=pDlpSiPyQNCpx5-JLCjo6Q). (It's kind of chronological but it also doesn't fully correspond to the fic, so you can listen to it in whatever order.)
> 
> Many thanks to Paula aka @catofthebarricades for beta-reading!
> 
> Content warning: there's a bit of blood and injury in the middle but it's really not that explicit.

**Colour and Light**

“If soulmates do exist, they’re not found. They’re made.” – The Good Place, 4x09 (“The Answer”)

If you asked Matteo Florenzi whether he believed in soulmates, he’d tell you that he thinks the entire system of soulmates is rigged and a way for the government to control people. Not because he believes that, necessarily. Because his friends, first and foremost Jonas, believe it, and really, it doesn’t matter to Matteo whether soulmates are real or not.

(Most days it doesn’t. Some days there is a feeling that he barely lets to the surface, a feeling like he wouldn’t have a soulmate anyway, like no one could ever love him, a feeling of almost gratefulness for the fact that his friends are fighting against the system because maybe, if soulmates were real, they’d _know_. Or maybe they wouldn’t. Maybe the universe would make a whole grand joke out of his life where he’s the punchline and Sara is his soulmate. But most days, Matteo doesn’t think about soulmates. Most days he only thinks about whatever new plan Jonas and his friends have come up with to dismantle the system or prove that soulmates are not real.)

They’re a funny group of friends, Matteo can admit that. There’s Jonas, his best friend since kindergarten. Jonas’ girlfriend Leonie who most definitely doesn’t like Matteo. Her best friend Sara who is way too into him. Carlos and Abdi, the clowns of the group and as inseparable as if they were soulmates. (Not that they are, of course. Matteo knows that. Soulmates don’t exist. And not that Carlos and Abdi are gay. They’re not.) And Amira, the fiercest person Matteo has ever met and the only one who makes him feel as if she sees right through all his pretences and knows him better than he knows himself.

Most of the time they sleep in abandoned buildings. Whatever they can find has to be good enough. They’re all 18 now, which means they should have found their soulmate and settled in with them. Except none of them have.

It sounds romantic, soulmates. It sounds nice. But what they found out, years ago, when Carlos hurt his arm so badly that Matteo thought he’d never be able to use it again, was that they’re all being controlled. The world is in black and white until you meet your soulmate. That’s the myth. That’s what the government tells everyone. Except it isn’t. The world is in black and white because the government makes you see the world in black and white. Because when you’re born, they insert a chip into your arm that changes your perception and only makes you see colour when you’re close enough to whoever it has been decided is your soulmate. Jonas and Amira understand how it all works but Matteo has never bothered to try. He’s just there, one of them, doing whatever they tell him to do. Sometimes he thinks it doesn’t matter much which side he’s on in this fight that his friends are so determined to fight. It probably doesn’t even matter what they do. He doubts the government cares that a bunch of teenagers have left home and cut out their chips to avoid being controlled by them. He doubts they care that he’s the only one of his friends who hasn’t had the guts to do that. He doesn’t even understand himself. That doesn’t matter either.

But then everything changes.

They’re living in an abandoned military base at the moment. When they arrive at the building, someone is there already. At first, it looks like there’s nothing more than a weirdly shaped heap of fabrics on the floor, but after a minute, someone stirs and rises out of the fabrics. It’s a boy, about their age, and Matteo has never seen him before. He knows that for certain, because he would remember him. Especially when the boy looks at all of them and Matteo could swear he looks at him for a second longer than the others.

At first, he thinks it may be one of his friends who has invited the boy. It’s how they found Sara. One day, Leonie showed up with her on her coat-tails and told everyone in her scary voice that they had to accept Sara, and that had been that. Leonie has always intimidated Matteo. He’s afraid she’d break every bone in his body if she thought he was treating Sara wrong. And she does think that he treats Sara wrong. She’s not wrong either.

But that doesn’t matter. Sara doesn’t matter, not right now. Not when there’s the boy right in front of him and he’s looking at him and he looks like someone he could fall in love with right there and then. (Maybe he has, a little. Maybe this is what they mean with soulmates. A connection, a feeling of you-fit-right-in-with-me. _Please don’t ever leave._ Not that he’d ever say that to any of his friends. They’d just laugh at him.)

But then the others stir and it becomes clear that no one knows the boy. Jonas and Amira immediately look like they’re ready to fight. As if the boy is a spy or something. Which is ridiculous because that boy is clearly in just as shit a situation as all of them. His heap of clothes on the floor doesn’t look even remotely comfortable. But that won’t stop Jonas or Amira.

“Who are you?,” Amira demands. She pulls out the knife she always has hidden somewhere on her. She makes them all carry one. When she’d first proposed the idea, Carlos had laughed hysterically and said: “What is this, are we living in a dystopian novel or what?” Matteo had agreed with him, silently. Carrying around knives had seemed like a ridiculously dramatic idea at the time. But they’d proven useful since then. Even if it’s mostly for cutting food or cutting Abdi free whenever he manages to get stuck in the most ridiculous places.

The boy blinks at her. He looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Like all he wants to do is run away. But Amira and Jonas can be intimidating as shit if they want to, so he stands his ground.

“My name is David,” he says eventually.

“And what are you doing here?,” Amira hisses.

David stares at them. They must look ridiculous, Matteo thinks. They’re such a bunch of misfits. But David seems to decide that he can trust them.

“I’m on the run,” he explains.

Amira and Jonas exchange one of their glances where they silently communicate with one another. They’ve always done that. Recently, they’ve been exchanging way too many glances that Matteo knows were about him.

They seem to decide to trust David, because Amira puts her knife away and gives a small nod.

“Alright. We get that. You can stay with us tonight if you want to.”

“Thank you,” David says and it sounds so sincere that Matteo can’t help but stare at him again. Not for the first time he wishes that he could see the world in colour. He wonders what colour David’s hair has exactly. How his face looks in full colour. Whether he could possibly be any more perfect than he seems in black and white.

David looks right back at him then and Matteo quickly averts his eyes. He’s already being way too obvious, he knows that. It’s a wonder his friends aren’t catching on. It’s a wonder they haven’t caught on long ago.

Leonie clears her throat then and makes them all do chores that she’s assigned them. For some reason, she has managed to be the one to direct them all around. She needs to be in charge of everything. Matteo doesn’t really care, except for the days where Sara has tried to talk to him and he has avoided her and Leonie is angry at him for it. Today is one of those days, so he gets stuck on toilet duty.

He doesn’t expect David to join him voluntarily, but he does. Maybe it’s because he’s trying to get into the others’ good graces, Matteo tries to reason with himself. Or because he’s scared of Leonie. Either way, it doesn’t mean David wants to talk to him.

But then he does.

“What’s your name?,” David asks.

Matteo’s reply comes out a lot more soft-spoken than he intends it to. He only realises then that he hasn’t said a single word in hours. He doesn’t quite know how to feel about that.

“Nice to meet you,” David replies.

This time, Matteo doesn’t trust his voice enough to answer so he decides to stay silent.

Except David seems to take that as a sign to stop talking to him and Matteo can’t have that. Not when David has actually come here to help him with this and he’s started talking to him.

So he clears his throat and tries again: “You’re on the run?”

“Yes,” David replies offhandedly and it almost stops Matteo from talking any more but he just can’t let this chance pass. Worst case scenario David will vanish forever tomorrow and he will never have to see him again.

“Are you in trouble?,” he asks again.

David looks him right in the eye and says: “Yes. I didn’t like my soulmate, so I killed him. The government doesn’t like that kind of stuff.”

Matteo’s laugh comes out choked as his mind spins around “I killed him.” _Him_. Does that mean –? He doesn’t finish that thought.

“What’s your excuse?,” David asks then.

It takes Matteo a moment to come up with a reply and even then, it’s not nearly as witty as David’s.

“My friends dragged me into this.” It’s almost the truth.

David cocks an eyebrow.

“And what do you want to do?,” he asks.

Matteo doesn’t quite know how to answer that question.

“What do you mean?,” he says instead.

“I mean,” David explains, “that sounds like you don’t really want to be here. So what is it that you want?”

Matteo stares at him and desperately tries to come up with an answer, anything, but before he can say something, a loud laugh interrupts them. Then Carlos and Abdi burst in, each with two beers in their hands. Abdi tries to hush Carlos who keeps laughing as if he’s heard the world’s funniest joke.

“We’re hiding from Leonie and Amira,” Abdi tries and fails to whisper. “Do you want one?”

David looks at Matteo with a look as intent as only Amira’s usually are. Then he turns to Abdi and replies: “Sure.”

Carlos holds out one of his bottles to Matteo, who shrugs in reply and takes the beer. Sitting with the boys and making stupid jokes is fine enough, but he longs for the calm of being alone with David from a few moments ago.

They settle down in a big circle eventually after Amira finds them hiding with their beers and makes them rejoin the others. Matteo always has the urge to leave and sit in a corner by himself when they do that. It feels too much like a weird sharing circle where his friends are going to ask him about how he’s feeling any moment. But he can’t just escape without his friends worrying about him.

So this it is then. Sitting in a circle with his friends, eating the food from dumpster diving earlier, stealing glances at David when he thinks no one notices.

There’s something about David. He’s attractive, sure. And funny, that much is clear once he’s settled in and starts talking to the others. But it’s not that. Not just that. There’s something about him, something about the way Matteo feels whenever their eyes meet. It’s like he’s touching something deep inside of him. Something he can’t quite put into words. Matteo finds himself staring at him for way too long but sometimes, when he desperately tries to look away and finds that he can’t for long, David is already looking at him. He’s not quite ready to confront how being watched by David makes him feel.

Sometimes, when he stares at David for a second too long and desperately tries to look away, he catches Jonas staring at him with a look he can’t quite decipher. He knows Jonas worries about him. He knows he wants Matteo to let him in, to talk to him more. But he’s not quite ready to confront that either.

David doesn’t leave the next day. Or the day after that. Instead, he becomes a part of their group quickly. He fits right in with them. He’s just as political as Jonas, as intelligent as Amira, as funny as Carlos and Abdi. He can even be as scary as Leonie and Sara. Matteo half expects him to ignore him now that he gets along so well with the others. But he doesn’t. He keeps talking to him. He keeps touching him with his words, so that he wants to tell David absolutely everything there’s ever been to tell about himself. He’s scared of that feeling, but only a little. He’s more scared of what would happen if he didn’t talk to David.

They’re in a different abandoned building now, this one with lots of nooks to steal away from the group. David always manages to find Matteo when he tries to hide. Every single time.

They’ve gotten closer to their goal of disproving soulmates. Or at least Matteo thinks they have. The truth is, he doesn’t understand much about how soulmates actually work or what Amira and Jonas are always talking about. He just does what he’s told by them.

He’s hiding in an empty windowsill after one of their more exhausting days when David finds him this time. He knocks on the wall as if to ask Matteo for permission to sit down, to give him company. He does it every time, even if Matteo has never turned him away before.

Sometimes they start talking right away. Sometimes all they do is sit and be in each other’s company. Tonight, they sit in silence for a while. Matteo almost thinks that they won’t talk at all today, when suddenly, he’s overwhelmed by the urge to know everything David has ever thought about anything. So he starts with the hard questions, because he doesn’t know how to start with the easy ones.

“Don’t you think it would be nice sometimes though?,” Matteo asks. “To have a soulmate? To have the universe tell you _hey, here’s who you’re supposed to spend your life with_?”

He looks at David then, for a moment, but he doesn’t let his gaze linger. He can’t allow himself to. He can’t risk David thinking that he is thinking about him when he says that. Even if, maybe, it’s true.

“Yeah, I suppose,” David answers. Then his face transforms into one of his cheeky grins that Matteo has come to like so much more than he should. “If you want a boring life, that is.”

“I wouldn’t mind a boring life,” Matteo mutters. He thinks he shouldn’t have said it as soon as he has and then he thinks about how glad he is that Jonas isn’t here right now. (For so many reasons.)

David looks at him, his eyes as bright and perceptive as ever, and then he says: “I think it’s bullshit anyway. Why should I only have one soulmate? Why shouldn’t I get to choose who I want to be with?”

“Is there someone you would choose? If you could, I mean,” Matteo asks. He almost regrets asking the question when David turns his face to him.

“Maybe,” he whispers. He sounds way more serious than he did just a moment before. It’s like something in the air shifts, like everything is suddenly loaded with meaning and tension. Then David shakes his head a little and continues in his normal voice: “I can choose though, you know. I’m not letting this fucked up system assign one person to me. No matter what happens.”

“Is that why you’re here?,” Matteo asks. Maybe he’s gone too far with that. That’s the rule, isn’t it? Don’t ask personal questions. They all have their reasons to be here and David doesn’t have to share his with him.

But David doesn’t seem to mind. Not today.

“Yes, I guess. I don’t like the idea of not getting to choose. My life is my decision, you know?”

Matteo thinks about it for a moment. Then he answers truthfully: “No.”

David looks at him with a question in his eyes.

He feels like he’s opening himself up too much, being too vulnerable. But he’d lay himself open for David any day.

So he explains: “Some days, I just wish that all decisions were made for me. I hate having to make decisions, don’t you?”

“I think getting to make my own decisions is the best part of life,” David smiles.

It makes Matteo smile too, just a little. But he’s grateful when David doesn’t keep pressing the matter.

“Why are you here, then?,” he asks instead. “If you like the idea of soulmates.”

Matteo shrugs.

“I’m sure you have a better answer than that,” David smiles. It’s a kind smile, one that doesn’t pressure Matteo, just makes him want to give David an answer.

“My friends started it, I guess. There was no reason not to join them,” he explains. David cocks his eyebrow, like he knows there’s more to it, that Matteo isn’t telling him the whole truth.

Matteo sighs. “I guess I just … I was scared, I think. Of not having a soulmate. Of being alone. And doing this, actively not believing in soulmates, makes it easier. It’s not my fault then, if I don’t have one.”

David looks at him with his too attentive eyes and for a moment there’s silence between them. It’s not uncomfortable.

“If soulmates were real, whoever’d have you as their soulmate would be lucky,” David says after a while.

Matteo tries to answer but he can’t come up with anything. What do you say to that? Instead, he slowly shakes his head. He doesn’t quite know what he means by that himself. But David seems to, because he takes his hand and squeezes it carefully. He doesn’t let go.

They keep talking. It amazes Matteo how easy it is to talk to David. How he seems to be able to pull any truth out of him, even the ones he doesn’t want to think about himself.

And David shares parts of himself too. He tells him about his sister that he hasn’t seen in months with the biggest smile on his face. He tells him about his parents who were constantly fighting when he was little. About how it made him question everything he’d ever been told about soulmates because surely, that wasn’t what soulmates were supposed to be. And he tells him he’s trans, one particularly lovely night where it feels like there’s not a single secret in the universe that they’d want to keep from one another. Matteo has never been more grateful for Jonas and the fact that he’s taught him enough about the topic to not react like an asshole. He’s still afraid of asking stupid questions and making David uncomfortable, but he’s doing alright. They’re both doing alright.

So he finally dares to do it one night. He’s finally ready to get rid of the stupid soulmate chip. He always knew the day would come anyway. They don’t know what exactly the government can do with the chip and he can tell that his friends were getting more uncomfortable with one of them still being connected to the soulmate system as time went on. But he doesn’t want any of them to do it. He asks David.

“Have you done it before?,” he asks nervously as David is disinfecting the knife Amira has given him the day he joined them.

“Only for myself,” David answers.

Matteo is scared of asking the next questions but he does anyway. “Does it hurt?”

“Do you want me to tell you the truth?,” David asks with a tiny smile.

“Lie to me,” Matteo replies instinctively. “No, don’t. Tell me the truth.”

David sighs. “Yes, it hurts. But it’s worth it, believe me. You can’t even imagine what the world looks like.”

Matteo nods. He knows that. They’ve all told him. The world is beautiful, he has no idea what he’s missing, all that jazz.

David gives him a moment. Then he asks softly: “Are you ready?” It sounds as if his voice is breaking a little.

Matteo doesn’t trust his voice at all right now, so he doesn’t say anything. He just gives a small nod.

He can’t quite explain it, but it hurts both more and less than he expected it to. He shuts his eyes and tries not to think and not to focus on the pain. Instead he focuses on where David’s hand touches his arm and how his skin tingles where they touch. And then it’s over.

Matteo opens his eyes and it’s like all the pain vanishes. It doesn’t matter. He opens his eyes and he sees David’s eyes in front of his. They’re brown. He knew that already. But he didn’t know what it meant, what it truly meant. There’s a million different colours in his eyes. He didn’t know that someone’s eyes could look like that. He didn’t know _anything_ could look like that.

“Beautiful,” he whispers. Somewhere at the back of his head a voice reminds him what he’s doing and that he’s talking to David and has stared into his eyes for way too long. But he ignores it. He can’t look away now.

David seemingly can’t, either. He just looks right back.

Maybe this is it, Matteo thinks. Maybe this is happening. Maybe all the things he’s been feeling haven’t just been in his head, maybe David feels the same, even just a little. He wouldn’t mind finding out, right now.

Then David clears his throat and says: “Look up.”

Matteo obliges and his breath hitches when he sees the sky. It’s full of stars. They’re spectacular. They’re the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. No, he thinks. David’s eyes are. The stars are the next best thing if he can’t look at David’s eyes for the rest of his life.

“I can’t believe I missed all of this,” he murmurs. He doesn’t trust his voice enough to talk any louder. Not with everything he’s feeling right now.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?,” David asks.

Matteo nods. He almost says it, then. Just right out says it, that all the stars in the world can’t compare to David.

Before he has a chance to, there is a loud clattering and Jonas is running towards them.

“What are you doing? What happened?,” he shouts angrily. Matteo can feel the worry radiating off him as he takes in his bloody arm and the way he’s slumped on the floor. But he can’t say anything. Not when he finally knows exactly what colour Jonas’ hair has and how his eyes look when he’s angry and that his sweater is a terrible colour that doesn’t suit him at all. Not when he can finally _see_.

Then Jonas gets it. His eyes widen and Matteo could swear he almost backs away.

“You didn’t,” he whispers. And then louder. “You didn’t!”

He’s kneeling next to him before Matteo’s brain fully registers what is happening. For once, any coherent sentences seem to have been knocked out of Jonas and the only thing he repeats over and over is: “You didn’t. Luigi, you didn’t.”

It’s so ridiculous that Matteo can’t help but laugh. And then, because he’s a little shit, he says: “That colour looks terrible on you.”

Jonas’s eyes narrow and he almost slaps Matteo on the arm before realising at the last moment that he shouldn’t. Then he laughs with him.

“That’s red, you idiot,” Jonas replies fondly.

He keeps laughing. And David joins in. They’re all sitting there, laughing like idiots, and they must look like they’re lunatics to anyone else. Matteo doesn’t care. He doesn’t have a care in the world right now. Not when he can finally _see_.

They’re in a crumbling, terrible building a few nights later. It doesn’t even have half of a roof anymore. But it’s a warm night and when it gets dark you can lie on your back and look up at the stars, so Matteo doesn’t mind much. (He doesn’t think he’ll ever get enough of looking at the stars, now that he can see them in all their glory.)

He’s leaning against one of the half-broken walls, looking up at the sky and smoking the joint he has stolen off Jonas earlier. Jonas had gone to sleep early after a terrible fight he’d had with Leonie. Something about how he never put her first. Matteo wasn’t paying attention.

He starts when he feels someone sit down next to him. For a moment, he thinks about simply not looking, ignoring whoever has felt the need to give him company he doesn’t want, make them realise that he is not in the mood to talk. But he’s glad he turns his head and looks because it turns out it’s David who has sat down next to him.

Matteo gives him a tiny smile (it’s all he can muster right now) and offers him the joint. David takes it and takes a drag as if he’s never done that in his life before. It elicits a small grin from Matteo.

“What?,” David huffs but it’s playful. Matteo knows that now.

“You’re not very good at this, are you?”

“Excuse you? I’m good at everything,” David states with his chin held high.

Matteo snorts.

“What, you don’t believe me?”

“I’m sorry, oh great David, of course I do,” Matteo says. He tries to say it earnestly but he can’t help but burst into giggles. He never giggles. He hopes none of his friends see him in this most embarrassing moment. He doesn’t care.

“I feel like you’re not taking me seriously,” David grins.

Matteo laughs and wants to make another joke, keep David laughing like this, keep everything as light-hearted and comfortable between them as it is right now. But they get interrupted by Hanna and Mia stumbling around and giggling. They’ve teamed up with other people now. Their group has grown and grown until it’s almost too many people to bear.

There’s the girls who went to school with them back when they were all still going, Hanna, Mia, Sam and Kiki. They’ve taken Amira in as one of them immediately and Matteo is fairly certain that if their groups ever split up again, Amira won’t choose him. There’s also Hans and Linn, Mia’s former flatmates. And Alex, her boyfriend. And Stefan, Hanna’s boyfriend, who Matteo finds kind of boring, which is sad because he doesn’t find Hanna boring at all.

Some days, having all the people there is a lot. Some days, all Matteo wants is to go back to the days where it was just him and Jonas against the world. But some days, it’s nice. Some days, he has weird talks with Linn or is joking around with Hanna and Sam or makes fun of Alex and it’s good. Life is good.

So of course the lazy, comfortable life doesn’t last. Jonas wakes them up in a hurry one morning. He and David have talked so long the night before that they dozed off right there and then, almost arm in arm. Almost. Jonas grins at them for a second when he wakes them, but then Amira calls him over and he has to attend to some other important things that Matteo has never bothered to try and understand.

It takes Matteo a moment to realise what is happening. They’re all widely excited, giddy like school children. Jonas, Amira and Mia have found a way to one of the governments offices, have found out where the soulmate documents are kept. It’s not much, just the documents for a small part of the city, but it’s enough. Enough to prove that soulmates are a fabrication, a myth perpetuated by the state.

Everything is a blur of people shouting and getting ready and being assigned different tasks. Matteo has a little moment of triumph when Jonas tells them that they’re supposed to work in pairs and assigns him to David with a wink.

He doesn’t remember much of what happens after. There is a lot of sneaking around, avoiding the police, being fast and athletic and all kinds of things Matteo is not. But somehow, they manage to enter the building, and somehow, they manage to find one of the offices and somehow, they manage to get in. It’s a miracle. The room is full of computers and completely abandoned.

Matteo doesn’t understand much, truly. But David seems to. He’s studying the room, the different computers, talking to himself as much as to Matteo. And Matteo knows it matters. He’s been waiting for this.

They’re supposed to find the data. They’re supposed to find it and take it and prove to the whole world that they’ve all been lied to. That soulmates aren’t real. This is it. Matteo tells himself over and over again. This is _it_.

But he’s looking at David and he swears he’s never seen anything more beautiful than the way his eyebrows crinkle when he’s thinking and the way his lips part slightly as he’s looking at one of the computers and also the way his hair is sticking up weirdly because he didn’t have time to do anything with it when they woke up hurriedly this morning. He can’t stop looking at David. He can’t move.

David turns around eventually, to see Matteo standing there and staring at him.

“What are you doing?,” he asks softly.

And Matteo gets it, he does. Their lives have been boiling down to this moment. This is more important than anything. It should be, anyway. But he can’t help the feeling that maybe, the moment his life has been boiling down to wasn’t breaking into this room. Not for the data, anyway. Maybe his life has been boiling down to breaking into this room _with David_ , to be in this moment right now and take a chance.

“Making a decision,” he explains. He doesn’t give David a chance to get it. He grabs him by the face and kisses him. It’s a bit awkward at first. New and exciting and clumsy. Until it isn’t. It’s lovely. It’s everything Matteo has been dreaming of these past few weeks.

He doesn’t plan on ever stopping kissing David. Damn the universe and soulmates and the government and their plan. Damn them all. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about anything except the feeling of David’s lips on his and David’s hands in his hair and the way David smells when he’s this close to him.

Then the door crashes open.

“Luigi!,” a familiar voice exclaims. All too unwilling Matteo lets go of David and turns towards where Jonas has just entered the room. He’s shaking his head but he’s doing it in such a fond way that Matteo knows he’s not angry at them.

“You have all the time in the world to make out once we’re done here,” Jonas adds nonetheless. He shakes his head again.

Matteo mumbles a “sorry” that he doesn’t really mean and he can feel his head turn red. This was not what he had planned. This is not at all how he wanted to come out to Jonas.

Jonas seems to get it, because he squeezes him quickly on the way to the computers. Matteo is not sure if he’s imagining it or not but he could swear Jonas whispers a very soft: “Happy for you” in his ear.

They’re all celebrating that evening. They’ve managed to get some of the documents, hopefully enough to prove something. They’ve all made it back safely. They’re alright.

It’s not like they’re going to change the world, Matteo doesn’t think. But maybe a small part of it. Maybe this, being friends, not taking any shit from anyone, falling in love, is enough. Maybe this is what resistance is about.

The others are dancing and drinking and jumping around. They’re a bit careless, especially after what they’ve done today, but they’re also young and not in the mood to be careful. David and Matteo are sitting a bit aside from the others because as much as Matteo loves his friends, he’s finally managed to kiss David and he’s not going waste any more time. So he’s half lying on David who doesn’t seem to mind at all and they’re watching their friends have fun and celebrate while staying in their own little world.

“Do you think we’re soulmates?,” Matteo whispers. He knows what David will answer. He knows because he knows David now. But he’s not asking him to get an answer he’ll like. He’s asking him to tell him that that’s what he’s thinking, maybe.

David laughs a little. “Do I think we’re soulmates?,” he repeats. When he says the word “soulmate,” it almost sounds like an insult. Like that’s the last thing he’d ever want to be. It is for him, Matteo guesses.

“You know that the whole thing is fucked up, right? What the government is doing isn’t right. How is some random person supposed to be your soulmate? How would anyone know who your soulmate is?”

“Anyone but yourself, you mean?,” Matteo asks. Because maybe, he’s a tiny bit curious what David will say now.

He turns his face to Matteo. “Do you really think that? That there’s one person out there that’s perfect for you?”

Matteo resists the urge to say something cheesy and stupid like “You’re perfect for me.” Instead, he says: “Who knows? It has to come from somewhere, right? Otherwise people wouldn’t believe it.”

David raises one eyebrow at him.

“I just mean, we don’t know anything, really, do we? I know the whole chip thing is rigged and that the government is lying to us and all of that. But why does that mean that soulmates aren’t real?,” Matteo continues.

“If you want to believe that we’re soulmates, go ahead,” David sighs.

“Maybe I do,” Matteo says in a way that’s way too defiant.

David looks at him then, really looks at him. His eyes turn softer than Matteo ever thought eyes could turn.

“It’s not because I don’t love you. It’s because I do,” he explains. “Because I want to believe that that’s my choice. That I met you and I fell in love with you because I wanted to. Not because someone told me to, whether that’s the government or the universe.”

Matteo wants to say something, tell David he loves him too, but he kisses him instead. There’s plenty of time for I love yous. There’s plenty of time for everything.

Leonie and Jonas split up, eventually. Which leads to Leonie and Sara splitting from the group. The only one who seems to truly be sad about it is David. But they’ve promised to keep in touch. Matteo is surprised to find himself a bit sad at seeing Sara leave too. Maybe they’ll be friends one day.

“Maybe Leonie just wasn’t Jonas’ soulmate,” Matteo suggests. He mostly says it because he knows it will annoy David. And maybe a tiny bit because Jonas is clearly into Hanna and he really likes her and finds her significantly less intimidating than Leonie.

They’re lying under the stars. They have been for way too long, both of them so tired that they’re almost dozing off. But it’s too nice, lying in David’s arms and talking to him about unimportant things. Matteo wants to stay awake just a tiny bit longer.

David huffs. He doesn’t even open his eyes, just slightly shakes his head.

“I hope Hanna is his soulmate,” Matteo continues. He knows he is annoying, so annoying, but he also knows that he won’t drive David away. He’s realised that in the past couple of weeks.

“No, she’s not,” David answers. He’s too easy to provoke.

“You don’t know that,” Matteo insists.

“Soulmates don’t really exist, anyway,” David murmurs. It’s lazy and slurred because they’re both so tired and can’t bring themselves to have a proper conversation. But he always has to have the last word, no matter what it takes. It’s going to drive Matteo crazy, he knows that. But he smiles a little anyway.

Maybe soulmates aren’t real. Maybe they are. They won’t be the ones to figure it out. It doesn’t matter, Matteo thinks. He’d choose David either way. He _is_ choosing him either way.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
